France and Germany to tackle taxation of the sharing economy

Finance ministers of France and Germany are joining forces to tackle questions about taxing the sharing economy, submitting a joint proposal to the European Commission to be revealed in September. The move was spurred by the revelation that Airbnb paid less than €100,000 in taxes in France, while the country is the company’s second-biggest market after the USA. Claiming that the current situation is ‘unacceptable’, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire explained that ‘These digital platforms make tens of millions of sales and the French treasury gets a few tens of thousands.’ He added that current mechanisms – consultations led by the European commission and the OECD – were ‘taking too much time’.